


Definition

by freakingdork



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Angst, Childhood Sexual Abuse, Episode Tag, Episode: s08e18 Restoration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-06
Updated: 2013-04-06
Packaged: 2017-12-07 14:42:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/749687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freakingdork/pseuds/freakingdork
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When it comes to naming what happened, words matter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Definition

sometimes he hears echos of the past

you’d better man up boy  
look up to the sky

except he sent prayers to the sky  
that were left unanswered  
and it was hard to see a sky  
even as

he pulled himself out of the gutter

and of what happened between  
the vulnerable and the wicked

he won’t say rape  
he won’t say assault

harassment  
will forever be  
too narrow

abuse  
can be  
too vague

coercion  
comes close  
but not quite

molestation’s the one that fits

snug and tight  
so much so  
that it nearly suffocates him  
but it keeps him from thinking of it in terms

he can’t accept

it’s broad with limits  
and it doesn’t use _that word_  
because it’s never mattered that  
the dictionary definition of

molestation is “sexual assault”

he sees that phrase as the incorrect interpretation  
of a perverse situation

demoralization is not sex  
dehumanization is not sex  
depravitity is not sex

it was a lot of things

but  
never  
ever

sex

**Author's Note:**

> not my usual style, but wrote it a couple of weeks ago on tumblr when the first sneak peek for "restoration" came out


End file.
